The South Village

The South Village sounded like the ideal sort of place to be. Nine shops lined each side of the main street, a large pond stood by in a forest so dense that the sun rarely shown through.But it wasn't.The shops had been closed up for decades because someone had killed a few of the merchants and frightened the rest off. The pond had been cursed and a creature so vile that the flowers surrounding it wouldn't show themselves for fear of it killing them. And ravels would pluck unsuspecting people from their way along the road and eat them. Life in the South Village was anything but normal.But Aurora and her band of merry men were going to fix everything starting with the shops. Hours after starting on them some of the humans came out of the woods to help and then other creatures. Soon they had nearly all of them cleaned and people moving in to sell their wares. But the pond's inhabitant was not leaving."Take it back," he growled at her. "Take back your help and leave me be. I like it here and I like it undisturbed. I want my peace.""Too bad. There are others here besides you who need this lake and you've killed all that live there before you." He raised his head from the blue water and roared. "And enough of that too. I'll have you know that before you came along and moved in a whole village ate from here. Animals drank from this water and survived. You are to move out of the lake and go to your own lair."When the creature stood up out of the water she nearly ran back. He was bigger than she'd thought and wondered how something so huge could have hidden in the lake without someone seeing him before now. Water steamed from his scales, moss and weeds fell to the water only to be sucked under when he sank back down. She wondered if he had sharp teeth when he leaned toward her and forgot it when his stench hit her nose."You smell," she said before she could sensor it. "I mean, you would think that living in the water that you'd smell at least a little better. Sheesh!"Then there was the king and his irritating ways to contend with. Would Aurora ever get through this?